HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

Damon ends coaching career with a victory

Matt Johnson, left, who will be taking over as head coach, gives North Marion Head Coach Craig Damon a hug after the Colts defeated the Knights 21-20 Friday night, September 6, 2013 at Booster Stadium. North Marion Head Coach Craig Damon coached his last game of his career since he will be taking a job with FHSAA.

Published: Friday, September 6, 2013 at 11:45 p.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, September 7, 2013 at 1:28 a.m.

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The veteran North Marion football coach, on the sidelines for the final time Friday at Booster Stadium, guided the Colts to one last thrilling victory, a 21-20 slugfest against archrival Vanguard that went down to the wire and deep into the night.

"Very special," Damon said afterward. "I would've liked for it to not be so close, so dramatic, but you want to go out with a little flare I guess.

As the clock expired, Damon got an ice bath from his players and a steady stream of hugs from his coaches — and a few Vanguard coaches, too — on a night that marked the end of a football era on Marion County's Northside.

And it ended the very same way most of Damon's Friday night's did — with a victory.

Damon will leave North Marion for a director of athletics role with the Florida High School Athletic Association next week. And he'll leave behind a 2-0 Colts team with a head of steam after rising to the challenge against a favored Vanguard squad on the road.

It took a botched Knights extra point for North Marion to seal the deal.

The Colts held a 21-14 lead late, but Vanguard staged a dramatic comeback late when quarterback Adam Robles found Natrell Jamerson for a 23-yard touchdown strike with 5 minutes left — the second hook-up of the game for that duo.

But the Knights were whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct after the play, which backed up the extra point attempt and opened the door for the Colts to disrupt the play and maintain a 21-20 lead.

Vanguard got another stop with 3 minutes to go and advanced the ball into Colts territory, but the drive stalled with a couple of dropped passes, then a sack from North Marion's Mikavis Mitchell on fourth-and-long sealed the game.

The Knights and Colts had to endure a 95-minute weather delay before finally taking the field, then the action that ensued was both soggy and sloppy — for a while, anyway.

North Marion's first three possessions ended quietly with punts, while Vanguard moved the ball better, but dropped a pair of long potential touchdown passes. A third Robles bomb that had touchdown written all over it was tipped away spectacularly by the Colts' Robert Johnson.

North Marion had some drop issues of its own, as the Colts squandered what could've been a runaway pick-six early in the second quarter.

The Colts made their first impact on offense with a 47-yard strike from Caleb Seiler to burly receiver Travonte Matthews, who reeled in a tipped ball before rumbling deep into the Knights' red zone.

It set up a first-and-goal from the Vanguard 2 to open the second quarter, but running back Derrick Harmon slipped on the next play and fumbled it away.

Seiler and Matthews hooked up again late in the second for 19 yards that was the catalyst of a 70-yard drive. After a nifty James Allen run put the Colts at the goal line, Seiler punched it in for a 7-0 lead.

But North Marion answered quickly with a dynamic touchdown of its own when Cameron Mackey took a quick out from Seiler, hop-stepped to shed a defender, then sprinted 42 yards to the end zone.

That's when things got ugly for the Knights. Three plays after the kickoff, a fumbled snap was pounced on by the Colts' Brandon Charles, and North Marion made the Knights pay on the very next snap with Allen's 10-yard touchdown run.

Down 21-7, Vanguard got right back into the game with a 47-yard bomb from Robles to Jamerson to cut the lead back to a touchdown.

Vanguard (1-1) got a 17-carry, 127-yard performance from Sweet, while Allen led the Colts with 86 yards on 26 carries.

Jamerson hauled in six passes for 93 yards and two scores to lead all receivers.

Those numbers notwithstanding, this was Damon's night. The calm and collected coach drank in his 113th and final victory in typical low-key fashion after the clock expired, then took a moment to express thanks for the support he's received since announcing his surprising departure back on Aug. 23.

"Everybody in Marion County," Damon said, "with their support, the love they've shown over the past two weeks, words can't explain how I feel."

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